New Orleans jurors may be getting tougher, as conviction rate rises

Jury trial figures for 2012 so far point to a significant rise in convictions from last year, with a smaller percentage of juries deadlocked

Kedrick "K.K." Johnson just slid off the wrong end of a rising trend for Orleans Parish. Indicted on a pair of murders five years apart, Johnson faced a novel tactic by Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office when he went to trial last November.

View full sizeIt took two tries, but the Orleans Parish district attorney's office convicted Kedrick Johnson of manslaughter.

Prosecutors included a charge of "criminal street gang" activity, weaving the two killings and a handful of drug convictions together in a menacing package. Still, the jury didn't buy it, deadlocking after five hours of deliberation.

So a few weeks ago, Cannizzaro's office tried again. Same defendant, same charges, same tactic. Different outcome.

The jury found Johnson, 30, guilty on two counts of manslaughter. He now faces 20 to 80 years in prison for each count under the state's habitual offender law.

Just what tilted the balance is uncertain. Perhaps the testimony of Johnson's co-defendant, Leonard Lewis, who pleaded guilty last year, played a role. Maybe prosecutors had a better plan, knowing the defense.

Or, as statistics seem to suggest, New Orleans jurors are simply getting tougher.

Jury trial figures for 2012 so far point to a significant rise in convictions from last year, with a smaller percentage of juries leaving the criminal courthouse at Tulane and Broad deadlocked.

Disregarding those hung juries, a review by The Times-Picayune shows Cannizzaro's office won 81 percent of the cases his prosecutors brought to trial -- not including hung juries or mistrials -- matching figures the district attorney recently touted before a City Council subcommittee.

That compares with 65 percent for 2011, when 348 defendants were brought to trial before juries. That was a far more hectic pace than the district attorney is setting this year. Through July, 126 defendants have been tried, according to case data supplied by the district attorney's office. If the pace continues, the district attorney will end the year having tried a little more than 200 defendants.

Times-Picayune archiveOrleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro also New Orleans residents are getting fed up. 'Jurors who live in this city say, "Look at our murder rate. I'll take a closer look at this".'

In an interview Wednesday, Cannizzaro credited his young stable of prosecutors for getting savvier. The office also is cutting more plea deals on drug, gun possession and other, lesser offenses that have proved tough to win at trial.

Cannizzaro also thinks New Orleans residents are getting fed up.

"Jurors who live in this city say, 'Look at our murder rate. I'll take a closer look at this,'" he said. "I don't think we've changed our philosophy."

One thing is clear: Cannizzaro has backed off his brash call early last year for the 12 criminal court judges to pick up the pace of trials. At the time, Cannizzaro urged the judges publicly to conduct 600 jury trials over the year.

The numbers fell well short, at 329, but still were significantly higher than years past.

Cannizzaro said the challenge made the point to criminal defendants that they faced a tough round in court if they failed to accept a plea.

Some defense attorneys say the rising conviction rate owes to some hard-handed tactics -- namely, a cutthroat approach to the state's habitual-offender law.

The conviction numbers include cases where juries brought back verdicts for lesser offenses, including misdemeanors. Cannizzaro's office also includes cases in which defendants plead guilty after a jury is seated.

The numbers differ from a Times-Picayune report in January that found Cannizzaro's office won 59 percent of the 237 cases in which juries reached a verdict on at least one criminal charge. But regardless of how they're counted, a review of the cases shows a significant rise.

John Fuller, a prolific trial attorney at Tulane and Broad, said Cannizzaro's win rate has little to do with the quality of prosecutors compared with years past, and more to do with the evidence.

More often, they now come to trial with video recordings, a record of the defendant's past convictions or acquittals and often damning phone recordings from jail.

"I've had more jail tapes used this year than I've had in my 10 years combined," Fuller said. Indeed, in his annual speech in June, Cannizzaro made special mention of the Orleans Parish sheriff's official who oversees the jail-tape system.

"Clients are not necessarily saying the most incriminating things, but their language on those jail tapes can be so terrible, the jury turns on them as a person. (Cannizzaro) is doing more of that," Fuller said.

He said Cannizzaro's office is dealing down weaker cases more often, leaving defendants to plead to a lesser crime or sit in jail.

Cannizzaro, now in his fourth year in office, acknowledges reaching more plea deals, allowing him to maintain a high conviction rate while taking on a far higher percentage of cases than his predecessors.

Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, noted figures showing that from 1999 to 2003, juries returned convictions in just 56 percentof the cases in which they reached a verdict.

"When you start to see an uptick in convictions ... it's a healthy sign the criminal justice system, particularly police and prosecutors, is working together as a team," said Goyeneche, a former prosecutor. "Unfortunately, we can't say that's always been the case. It hasn't."

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John Simerman can be reached at jsimerman@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3330.